Marker on the Wall? Use Lemon Essential Oil

One thing that's inevitable when you have kids is marker on the wall... or on the door frame, floor, counter..... almost anywhere.

My son, who now is 6, had a few coloring frenzies on the wall.  The first one was below the big white board we have in the kitchen.  He was coloring on the white board with a dry erase marker and then decided to color on the wall.  He was too young to really know it was wrong, because he was coloring on the white board a foot up... so why not color on the wall?   I wasn't sure what to use,  we only had natural products in the house and my 'go to' was vinegar with water.  At this point, I only had a few oils, and the thought of using them didn't even occur to me.  The vinegar kind of faded the marker as well as take some of the paint off!!  That was not a great solution.  I year later I ended up painting over it.

But then came my daughter.  She had this urge to draw everywhere, that budding artist.  She's drawn on my yellow and white striped wall, in the hallway, on the floor and the worst one is that she drew with Sharpie on our closet door frame!!   We had left that one there since not many people come over and go back in our bedroom closet... but it wasn't pretty.

Fast forward a year or two when I first got my kit,  I noticed some people using lemon to clean off things on their wall and floor.  So I got the urge to try it.  I remembered the Sharpie on the door frame.  I was so curious... did it work?  I dropped a few drops of Lemon essential oil on a rag and gave it a scrub.  Lo and behold, IT WORKED!   It did take a little elbow grease but I was surprised how easily it did come off after being there for over a year.

I was shocked at how well it worked.  Now that my kids are a little older now, they know not to draw on the wall but I have a feeling that the two little ones I'm about to have are going to have some urge to draw on the wall.  I think all kids do.  

Give it a try!  You'll be amazed!

*note- I would try it on a small area first to make sure it wouldn't take paint off or ruin furniture.  But I've never had it do that :)

If you want to get Lemon Essential Oil, you can go here and get started with your own kit.  Or you can email us and we can order it for you.

Thieves Household Cleaner: The many uses

Thieves Household Concentrated Cleaner is hands down the one product I will continue buying from Young Living no matter what. I have tried relentlessly to replace my (eep!) bleach wipes, bathroom, and counter top cleaners! I really wanted to go all natural, but making my own cleaners just never had the powerful punch I was use to after using harsh toxic cleaners for most my life. Enter essential oils into my life, and, after several months of buying oils for various reasons, I finally bought a bottle of the household cleaner. I was totally blown away. After using vinegar and baking soda combinations that just kind of spread the dirt around and did nothing for stuck-on-whatever that kiddos leave behind, I was so happy to find a natural solution that worked well, and cost so very little!

Here is a break down. A bottle of Thieves Cleaner costs $22.00 for a 14.4 ounce bottle of cleaner. The bottle is concentrated, so you put one cap-full of cleaner into a spray bottle, and the 14.4 ounce container can make up to 30 bottles of cleaner. That is .73 center per bottle of cleaner!! You can't get anything as cheap as that, that cleans as well as this does!

The back of the bottle shows how to dilute for levels of de-greasing in your kitchen. Here is a list of ideas on what the "normal" dilution of 1:30 would be used for:

• Walls
• Windows
• Counter tops
• Table tops
• Toilets
• Floors
• Cupboard doors
• Shelves
• Fridge and freezer
• Children's toys
• Dog toys
• Dash and doors in vehicles
• Appliance fronts
• Microwave
• Inside motorhomes, campers, and trailers
• Light fixtures and light switches
• Fire place
• Doors and door knobs
• Wood furniture
• Dusting
• Cell phone
• Bbq
• Garbage Cans
• Under the sink
• Pots and Pans
• Exercise equipment
• Oil and grease stains
• Eyeglasses
• TV and computer screens
• Kid and dog messes

Here are 11 other ways to use your Thieves Household Cleaner:

1. Laundry Assist: Place 1-2 cap-fulls in the soap dispenser of the washing machine. Or make this spot remover spray for stubborn clothing stains.
2. Dishwasher: Put one cap-full of cleaner in dish washer and run as normal. 
3. Floors: Place half a cap-full into refillable bottle for spray mop and top off with water. Or mix 1 cap-full with 4 cups of water and 3-5 drops of Lemon essential oil to mop tile, hardwood, and laminated floors.
4. Carpet: Fill carpet cleaner reservoir with approximately six cups to one gallon on water, then add a cap-ful of thieves cleaner and 2-4 drops of Purification essential oil. 
5. Bathrooms: Dilute thieves cleaner as recommended in spray bottle and use to wash mirrors, floors, counters, toilet, sink and bathtub. For inside toilet use our Cleaning Bombs and for hard water stains or stubborn tub stains make a Salt Scrub Faucet Cleaner. 
6. Windows:  Use cleaner diluted for everyday use, or mix half a cap-full with 1 tsp vinegar and 2-3 drops of Lemon essential oil in a spray bottle to clean windows, mirrors, and window sills. 
7. Toys: Use regular dilution and spray over toys, then let air dry. Or fill sink with hot water and add one cap-full of thieves cleaner and half a cup of vinegar, let toys soak for ten minutes, then air dry. 
8. Hand Cleaner: Mix half a cap-full of cleaner with half a cup of water and place in a 4 ounce spray bottle to use as an on-the-go hand cleaner.
9. Grout and Tile: Mix half a cap-full of thieves cleaner with a cup of water. Spray on tile or grout and let sit 10-15 minutes and then scrub with brush. 
10. Fruit and Veggie Wash: Fill sink with water and add one cap-full of thieves cleaner. Let veggies and fruit soak for 10 minutes to remove grime, stickers and wax. 
11. Foaming Hand Wash:  Mix a third a cup of unscented hand soap with a quarter cap-full of thieves cleaner in a foaming hand wash container, then top off with water. Gentle shake and you are all ready!

What would YOU clean?

Happy oiling, Mandy

Take the Stink Out of Your Laundry

** I wrote this post for The Good Oils a few months ago.  You can see it there too :)

Who has stinky clothes after working out?  Yep… it happens to everyone.  And then you wash your clothes, throw some extra soap in and then when you take it out of the dryer… and they still stink!  Well, not as bad before you washed them, but they smell more like detergent plus B.O.  No one wants that.

The last time that happened to me and my husband, I thought of my oils.  Which one would take away that crossfit stink?  Purification!

I usually wash all of our work out stuff together in one load.  One night I noticed my husbands shirt still smelled bad so I washed everything over again.  I added 5 drops of purification into the laundry detergent.  Guess what?  The clothes smelled wonderful.  All of the B.O……. GONE!  I was pretty impressed by that little bottle of goodness.

I had tried a couple different things before purification, including – using more soap and using vinegar with my laundry soap. Neither of those worked as well as adding purification in to the laundry detergent.

So next time you get back from a run, a crossfit workout or the gym, put that purification in your wash!!!

***

I have also been using Citrus Fresh Essential Oil in our laundry as of lately, instead of Purification.  I just switched because I think it smells good for the summer.  But you can choose your favorite oil to add to the laundry!  All of them smell wonderful!

You can Visit Mandy and I at The Good Oils, too.  We blog there as well as here.   And also- if you wanna get your own oils see the Get Your Oils HERE page.